News & Pubs Archive

Letters to the editor: The Wisconsin Lawyer publishes as many letters in each issue as space permits. Please limit letters to 500 words; letters may be edited for length and clarity. Letters should address the issues, and not be a personal attack on others. Letters endorsing political candidates cannot be accepted. Please mail letters to "Letters to the Editor," Wisconsin Lawyer, P.O. Box 7158, Madison, WI 53707-7158, fax them to (608) 257-4343, or org wislawyer wisbar email them.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR), an agency of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and component of the lawyer regulation system, assists the court in carrying out its constitutional responsibility to supervise the practice of law and protect the public from misconduct by lawyers. The OLR has offices at 110 E. Main St., Suite 315, Madison, WI 53703; toll-free (877) 315-6941. The full text of items summarized in this column can be viewed at www.wicourts.gov/olr.

This column summarizes selected published opinions of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. Full-text decisions are available online at http://www.wisbar.org/wislawmag. Profs. Daniel D. Blinka and Thomas J. Hammer invite comments and questions about the digests. They can be reached at Marquette University Law School, 1215 W. Michigan Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53233, (414) 288-7090.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court permits the Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) to publish, for educational purposes, in an official State Bar publication a summary of facts and professional conduct rule violations in matters in which the OLR imposed private reprimands. The summaries do not disclose information identifying the reprimanded attorneys. The following summaries of selected private reprimands are printed to help attorneys avoid similar misconduct problems.

Best practice recommends that you change your password frequently and that you don't use the same password for every website. In this video, available with the Oct. 3, 2012 issue of WisBar InsideTrack, Nerino Petro, State Bar practice management advisor, discusses passwords, password security, and ways to keep your passwords safe online.

Many Wisconsin statutes make it possible for prevailing parties to recover attorney fees from the opposing side. Recent changes, however, presumptively cap reasonable attorney fees at not more than three times the damages awarded and list factors a court must assess when making the award. Here is a look at how courts may interpret and apply the law.

Grievances filed with the Office of Lawyer Regulation are rising. Knowing the practice areas and types of errors most often complained about can alert you to vulnerabilities in your practice so you can prevent mistakes and problems.

Although ethics rules do not explicitly bar lawyers from representing their relatives in matters opposing other family members, lawyers must exercise extreme caution to ensure they can provide effective advocacy in such situations.

Significant reforms to U.S. patent laws move from a "first-to-invent" to a "first-inventor-to-file" system, create new proceedings for challenging patents, and implement litigation reforms, with the goal of creating millions of jobs and securing the United States' position as an innovative-technology leader.

The State Bar's mission to help educate members goes beyond its nationally recognized continuing legal education offerings to include other programs such as Practice411 and WisLAP, and by providing members with opportunities to share knowledge through participation in governance, committee work, and more.

Letters to the editor: The Wisconsin Lawyer publishes as many letters in each issue as space permits. Please limit letters to 500 words; letters may be edited for length and clarity. Letters should address the issues, and not be a personal attack on others. Letters endorsing political candidates cannot be accepted. Please mail letters to "Letters to the Editor," Wisconsin Lawyer, P.O. Box 7158, Madison, WI 53707-7158, fax them to (608) 257-4343, or org wislawyer wisbar email them.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR), an agency of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and component of the lawyer regulation system, assists the court in carrying out its constitutional responsibility to supervise the practice of law and protect the public from misconduct by lawyers. The OLR has offices at 110 E. Main St., Suite 315, Madison, WI 53703; toll-free (877) 315-6941. The full text of items summarized in this column can be viewed at www.wicourts.gov/olr.

This column summarizes all decisions of the Wisconsin Supreme Court (except those involving lawyer or judicial discipline, which are digested elsewhere in the magazine). Profs. Daniel D. Blinka and Thomas J. Hammer invite comments and questions about the digests. They can be reached at Marquette University Law School, 1215 W. Michigan Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53233, (414) 288-7090.